Women’s AIL Week 5 Revisited

This week we have a special preview of the rearranged Week 5 match between Railway Union and UL Bohemian.

The match had previously been cancelled due to storm Brian, but it now takes place at 13:00 on Sunday at Park Avenue. The Front Row Union will be there to cover it.

There will be several changes to both sides from the teams that featured in the last round. Railway Union have sixteen players unavailable either due to injury or involvement in the sevens programme and there are a few injury concerns for UL Bohemian.

However, these two sides probably have the strongest pools of players in the competition and, irrespective of availability, both will be fielding strong sides.

It’s probable that the match will feature three Ulster born players with, Cavan’s finest, Helen McDermott (UL Bohemian) likely to be up against Ulster duo Larissa Muldoon and Nikki Caughey (Railway). There will be intriguing head to heads all over the pitch as both teams scrap it out to see which club will go into the December break at the top of the table.

“Bohs have been the premier team in Ireland for many years now, perennial league winners and the club that everyone aspires to, but we’re playing well at the moment.

Training is very sharp and we place a big premium on skills. We’re vastly improved, as a team and individually, from where we were this time last year and John Cronin has us playing an attacking style of rugby that suits us and that puts a lot of pressure on the opposition.

We’re really looking forward to testing ourselves against the champs on Sunday.”

And certainly we’d agree that Railway play the most exciting brand of rugby in the league at present. However Bohs are up for the challenge as Chloe Pearse told us earlier:

“We’re really looking forward to the game on Sunday, especially following the trilogy of games last March which saw a win each and a draw.

We are expecting a massive battle up front from Railway, which you’ll always expect, especially at home, and no doubt there’ll be a big crowd there to watch this one.

We’d like to think we’re going into the game with our noses in front but they probably think the same. It’s gonna be a great game.”

So we have two teams at the top of the table and at the top of their form, just who is going to win? It’s a tough call.

As we said above, Railway have played the most exciting rugby this season, and comparing both teams matches against Cooke, Railway definitely looked much more convincing.

However, as I’ve also said before; no one’s won money betting against the magnificent Bohs. They always find a way to win, as they like to remind me from time to time. They didn’t become the leading Women’s side in Ireland for no reason, they know how to dig deep.

But, enough prevarication, the public want a decision. We tipped Railway in our original preview for this match and, despite some sensational wins from Bohs in the intervening period, we’re still going to tip the Dublin side to go into the New Year at the top of the table.

I don’t know which team that’ll inspire most! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Either way, it’ll probably be the best game of rugby played in Ireland this weekend.